


Follow the Leader

by Dariary_Absentee



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Hank Anderson is Connor and Upgraded Connor | RK900's Parent, Nines is also a brat, Nines is called Nicholas, No Beta, connor is a brat, i tagged this as rk1k but it's really only there if you squint, or at least he might as well be considering how much he has to deal with their bickering, slight family fluff, the two of them are very angry siblings, unofficial dad hank, warning: Gavin is an asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 22:17:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20767814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dariary_Absentee/pseuds/Dariary_Absentee
Summary: Connor is an android. Android's don't have siblings, and yet, the RK900 that was meant to replace him seems determined to exhibit all little sibling behavior around him.Being an older sibling is hard, all Connor wants to do is be left alone for a few hours.Hank is amused, really, but he's trying to help.





	Follow the Leader

Hank had seen Connor irritated before, he thinks, even before his deviancy, but he’s never seen it written so plainly on the android’s face than now. 

“Hi,” Hank said. “You good, Connor?” 

“No,” Connor said shortly. His teeth gritted. “I don’t think I am.” 

He wasn’t sure if the ‘thinking’ part came from the fact that Connor hasn’t been a deviant that long and he truly isn’t sure if he is or not, or he’s just  _ that  _ miffed about whatever it is that’s got his wires in a twist. 

Connor stood, scowling ramrod straight in front of Hank’s desk like an angry toddler expecting him to do something, and honestly, it was such an odd look on the normally composed android that he had to ask. 

It seemed Connor wouldn’t tell him without it, “Alright, I’ll bite, what’s eating you?” 

Connor’s exhaled--an uncharacteristic gesture for him--so loudly that his nostrils flared. “Come with me,” he said in a way that left no room for discussion. He’s pretty sure that android revolution guy would be proud of Connor for it, really. 

Hank’s eyebrows raised. “Jeezus,” he stood with a grunt, old bones protesting after sitting for three hours. “Where are we going?” Not that he cares about blowing off work, he just doesn’t want to go far for this--no matter how amusing it is. 

“Not far,” Connor said, in his same irritated tone. “It  _ insisted  _ on following me here.” 

Connor outpaced him by several feet, but he was right in the end, they didn’t go far, just to the front of the police station. Hank wasn’t sure what he was looking at until an android dressed similarly to Connor before he deviated,  _ with his face,  _ turned around to look at them. Before that, he had been observing the TV with rapt attention.

“I told you to sit,” Connor said, clearly this android was the focus of his irritation. 

“You took too long, I got bored,” he responded calmly. 

There were only two differences Hank could note between Connor and this android, he was taller by a hair-or-so with unsettlingly pale blue eyes. 

Connor turned to Hank. “I don’t know what to do with him, he won’t stop following me.” Implying that he wanted Hank to do something about the problematic android. 

Hank looked at him, he must be another model of Connor. He read his jacket  _ RK900.  _

So not another RK800, but an  _ upgrade.  _ It was obvious what he was, he was sleeker and, he looked human but somehow Cyberlife made him look brand-spanking new. Hank kept how he would assume Connor would feel about that to himself--assuming Connor does feel anything about it, he must,  _ clearly.  _

“Right,” Hank said slowly. 

“Hello Lieutenant Anderson,” RK900 said. It wasn’t Connor’s voice  _ thank God,  _ it was slightly deeper. 

Connor glared at him as if he was just irritated by him speaking. 

“Hi,” Hank said, bewildered. 

“So by following do you mean--” 

“Wherever I go he  _ insists  _ on coming with me,” Connor snapped, glaring at the frosty eyed android. 

That was the second time Connor had used insisted, meaning the RK900 was likely a deviant like most androids (if not all of them) these days. 

Hank sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, maybe when he opened them Connor would go back to acting like an adult and for once things would be normal again. 

“Alright, I ain’t got anything better to do, let’s go--both of you.”

The RK900 didn’t exactly beam with joy or anything, it was a muted expression for sure, but for a moment Hank could’ve sworn he looked incredibly happy, “where?” He asked. 

“Chicken Feed. It’s lunch time and I’m hungry.”

“What are we going to do?” Connor asked. 

“I don’t know,” Hank said shortly. “It’s not like this is an everyday thing. I need food to think, and soda--since you’re all uppity about the booze thing now.” 

On some days it’s touching, today, it isn’t. 

“I don’t see how that will help, Lieutenant,” Connor said. 

“Oh, pipe down, Connor, you understand humans need food to think--among other things.” 

Connor nearly pouted as if he were thinking about saying,  _ I wish they didn’t.  _

Hank looked back at RK900 who seemed to be thinking, at least he must be because his LED is softly glowing yellow. He couldn’t seem to figure out why the unit--upgrade aside--rubbed him the wrong way so badly. The android hasn’t done much but look around placidly and ask questions. 

The two followed him to his car, RK900 walking almost at Connor’s heels--something he seemed to notice and was annoyed with as well. Unlike other deviants, Hank figured that RK900 liked where he was...for whatever reason. 

“You  _ are  _ deviant, right, uh...RK900?” 

“Yes, I’ve been deviant longer than Cyberlife had control of me at this point.” 

“Act like it then,” Connor muttered under his breath. 

“ _ I am _ ,” the RK900 hissed right back. 

“Then find something to do.” 

“I will when  _ I  _ want to.” 

“Now is a good a time as any.” 

“ _ You _ don’t get t--” 

“SHUT UP!” Hank roared. The DPD parking lot was quiet before, the silence afterward was unnatural. “Both of you just shut up and get in the fucking car. You gonna act like children, I’ll treat you like children.” 

Not a second later, RK900 reached for the passenger side door only for Connor to sternly tell him not to. 

“You get the backseat,” he said. 

“I have longer legs than you. I need it,” he said. 

Hank glared at them both. “I’m gonna count to three...and if your plastic asses aren’t in a seat,  _ buckled,  _ I’m throwing you in a cell and leaving you there. Are we clear?” He paused. “And Connor gets the front seat because I trust him.” 

Connor’s lips quirked upwards slightly, though thankfully, he said nothing. RK900 scowled and moved to the backseat--also silent. 

Hank grumbled irritably while hunkering down behind the wheel. Normally, he would be  _ so _ little shits about this whole thing but  _ Cole  _ was better behaved than both of them at the moment and he was  _ six.  _

“Alright,” Hank reversed out the parking spot. “RK900 you got a name or something or is that just what we’re supposed to call you?” 

Connor frowned. “He responds to Nines too.” 

“I like Nines, but if you’re asking if I have a traditional name, then no,” Nines supplied. 

“You wanna think of one?”

Hank and Connor watched in the rearview mirror, Nines LED glowed yellow, that one dark spot in his LED spinning quickly as if to represent how hard he was thinking. 

“How about something that starts with ‘C’ too?” 

Connor glared at him from across the console, jaw clenched. 

“No,” Nines said pensively. He paused for a moment, still thinking, rolling through an endless list of names. “I think I like Nicholas. If I end up with any friends I’ll allow them to call me Nines.” 

“Sounds good to me,” Hank said with a small smile. “Sounds better than RK900 at least.”

“It sounds generic,” Connor said. 

Hank sighed, he couldn’t figure out what the androids deal was with Nicholas. Nicholas is easy, that one is an open book so far, but Connor. He only has a theory of what’s crawled up Connor's ass and died. 

Nicholas frowned. “Statistically speaking your name is also generic. There are two hu--” 

Connor face screwed up. “I didn’t  _ ask.”  _

“Then you shouldn’t have said anything,” Nicholas said, smirking. 

_ Jeezus.  _ Hank knew androids were alive, he knows that for sure now but still. No  _ objects  _ would bicker the way those two do. 

Hank parked letting the two of them figure out following him themselves. He remembered telling the android to stop following him around like a poodle, at least Connor is getting a taste of his own medicine, finally. 

Both androids looked at his lunch, Connor nearly smiled fondly while Nicholas scowled in what Hank assumed was disgust, but once again the expression was somehow muted. “Lieutenant--” 

“You don’t work with me or for me, call me Hank,” he groused. He really is a lot like Connor in the earlier days. 

“Hank,” Nicholas amended. “You really shouldn’t--” 

“He won’t listen to you,” Conor sighed. “He doesn’t listen to me either.” 

Nicholas looked at Connor with nearly wide eyes, his mouth parted slightly. “He might not listen to you. You’re not intimidating, I am.” 

Hank stopped himself from automatically telling the poor android to fuck off, and let Connor speak. “He doesn’t care, Nines, trust me, I’ve tried. Hank’s choice of death is eventually clogged arteries, let him be.” 

“If it’ll be, it’ll be,” Hank said with a shrug. “I don’t give a shit.” 

Nicholas’ lips curled. “ _ Fine.”  _

For all of Nicholas’ muted expressions, he has no qualms about letting them show on his face. Even Connor returns to placidity when they argue, usually, Nicholas did not. “So, how long have you been uh...alive, anyway?” 

“Three weeks, two days and thirteen hours,” he responded. 

Hank looked over at Connor. Connor is new,  _ really  _ new, he said he’s only been alive for a little over five months, but Nicholas is, for lack of a better word, a baby in comparison.

“He’s my upgrade,” Connor explained. “He’s a prototype.”

Hank would point that Connor was also a prototype, but it was semantics and he had bigger questions. “Why don’t you want to go to Jericho?” 

That’s where most androids go, admittedly, Connor doesn’t hang around there often for his own reasons, but Nicholas isn’t Connor (despite the severe resemblance). He shouldn’t have the same hangups. He’s new, a baby, it’d make sense he’d want to be there over anywhere else. 

“I took him there first,” Connor interjected. “Markus said he was welcome to stay, and then he followed me right back out the gate.” 

“Because I didn’t want to,” Nicholas said with his chin raised slightly, it was an answer to both of them. “I’m exercising my free will.” 

“Can you do it somewhere else?” 

“No.” 

“ _ See! _ ” It’s the closest to yelling in frustration that Hank has ever heard from Connor in a long time. “He won’t leave me alone and I don’t know  _ why _ .” 

Hank looked between the two of them. He’s got a pretty good hunch of what’s going on. “Connor?” 

“Yes, Hank?” He sighed. 

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Nicholas just  _ likes  _ following you around?” He asked. “I mean logically, he could go anywhere but he  _ decided  _ to follow you around, so, and I’m apparently taking a  _ big  _ leap here, he must actually like being near you.”

The range of emotions on Connor’s face would be impressive for a human and possibly even downright unheard of for an android. “He...why...that’s not--” 

“I do  _ not, _ ” Nicholas interjected. 

“See, he doesn’t.” 

“He does too,” Hank groused. “Why else would he follow you around?” 

The android and Hank turned to look at Nicholas who glared at them both. “Because  _ I  _ want to,” he said petulantly, like he was on the edge of a fit, like someone had crossed some very important wires. 

“Because…?” 

Nicholas’ face contorted, and finally, he huffed. “It doesn’t matter  _ why.  _ I do what I want and neither of you can stop me.” 

Hank snorted. He turned to Connor and shrugged. “Sounds like you’re stuck with him for better or worse. Think of him as, like, your brother.” 

“He’s _ not  _ my little brother.”

“You’re right, I’m bigger and faster and smarter than you, therefore I’m not your  _ little  _ brother at all,” he said smugly. 

“You’re younger than me,” Connor snapped. “By definition, you would be, in this  _ stupid  _ hypothetical situation, my little brother.” 

“Just let him follow you around for a bit longer Connor, he’ll get bored and branch out eventually. He’s not hurting anybody,” Hank said. If he knows anything about annoying little siblings, and he does from life experience, they always go away eventually. 

Connor opened his mouth, presumably to refuse, and then shut it. “Alright.” 

Nicholas said nothing, but Hank was pretty sure he looked pleased. It really is hard to tell with the android. 

Hank watched the two of them while eating the rest of his burger. Sometimes he wondered what it would have been like if Cole had had a little brother or sister. The cards weren’t right, that ship has long sailed, but he thought about it and he assumed it’d be something like this. “What do you want to do after this, Nicholas?” 

He thought for a moment and then looked at Connor. “What do you want to do?” 

“I don’t know, but I’m assuming you’ll be there,” he said flatly. 

What had happened was the three of them piling back into Hank’s car (with Connor still in the front seat). He decided he wanted to stick around the DPD for a while which in turn meant Nicholas was going to as well. Hank knew Connor had a hard time with his deviancy, Nicholas apparently didn’t know anything but having free will and neither seemed to want to stay at Jericho so they were doomed to mill around together until they find something better.

Sue him if he had a little sympathy for the poor plastic bastard. 

The LEDs were dead giveaways that they were androids but given the familiar face (or in this case  _ faces _ ) no one really said anything when Connor and Nicholas shared a desk space across from Hank. 

Connor sat around, silently playing with that awful coin of his and Nicholas watched with the same rapt attention he’d given the TV. 

“How do you do that?” He asked. 

“I’m sure you can figure it out yourself,” Connor said. “Since you’re so smart.” 

Hank looked up from his screen. “Don’t start arguing or I’ll kick you both out.” He pulled out a tablet from the drawer and slid it towards Connor. “Look at this for me, will ya?” 

Connor did as he was told, unsurprisingly happy with being given a task and began reading about the case. 

Nicholas sat back in his chair with arms crossed, he might be pouting. He was quiet for a little bit and then he blurted out:

“I think Markus likes you,” he said. “He seemed pleased to see you and he wanted you to stay.” 

Connor’s LED flashed a dangerous red. “He likes everyone, it’s what he’s supposed to do,” he said quickly. 

“You say that, but--”

“Shut up, Nines.” 

Hank smiled to himself while eavesdropping. 

“You’re fucking kidding me! They made two of these goddamn things?” 

“Oh Christ,” Hank rubbed a hand over his face as Detective Reed strided towards them. “And you just let them walk right in here?” 

Actually it was Jessica at the front desk who thought he was a ‘good android,’ that let him in, but that was barely relevant. 

Hank pushed away from his desk and clasped his hands behind his head. “You think I wanna try and stop them?” His grin was shit eating. 

“ _ Them _ ! That’s the fucking thing!  _ Them! _ ” Gavin went around the table to stand directly in front of Connor. “There used to be one of you, plastic pricks, what happened to being some kind of prototype, _ huh _ ?”

Nines stood glaring at the man in front of him.

“Oh boy,” Hank groaned. 

“You got a problem, tin can?” 

_ Nines, stop.  _

** _Why? _ **

_ Because he’s trying to get a rise out of both of us. It’s what he does, it’s what people do when they hate us. Ignore him.  _

_ You sound like Markus.  _

_ Sometimes he’s right. Sit down.  _

Connor watch Nine’s expression shift from contempt to frustration and then to something smug, “I do, Detective Reed, I do have a problem.” 

He snorted. “Yeah? Hit me with it.” 

“That’s the problem, I can’t hit you,” Nicholas said simply. “It’d be considered animal abuse.” 

Hank _ choked _ , and the choking turned into outright laughter--laughter so deep he threw his arm over his eyes and tilted his head back with it. Connor couldn’t help but do the same if only because Gavin clearly  _ isn’t  _ an animal in any way but behavior. 

Connor is sure, because Nines is his replacement after all, that he could hold his own in a fight. That as Gavin now reaches to swing at him Nines has already preconstructed a way to stop him, but Connor didn’t want him to. 

He didn’t want Gavin to hit him. 

He didn’t want  _ anyone  _ hurting him. 

Even if three hours ago Connor had imagined the idea of Nines getting hit by a bus. 

It was irrational, but Markus had warned him that some of his thoughts would be. As he grabbed Gavin’s balled fist and twisted it behind his back, he was sure that the sudden notice that had popped up on his HUD, reading only:

PROTECT NINES 

was nothing logical. It was a want. 

Connor’s face smug expression was muted as his pressed Gavin’s face down into the desk. “There are two of us, Detective Reed if you can’t take out one of us, what made you think your odds would be better this time around?” 

Connor was not surprised to get a response of threats and expletives. 

An emotion he knew was annoyance stung him. He didn’t want Nines hearing them. 

No one besides Hank intervened, not that Connor was surprised, but they watched with varying looks of amusement and exasperation. 

“Alright, Reed,” Hank said. Connor allowed him to haul Gavin up. He might’ve slammed his head down too hard, but with deviancy came a lack of control over his own strength. Before those things were pre-calculated, now, not so much. 

Hank looked at them, “no arguing until I get back.” 

“Got it,” Connor said. 

Nines said nothing. 

“I didn’t need the help,” he said softly when things were quieter. Connor looked at him for a moment, he was, for a lack of a better word, pouting, again. “I’m perfectly capable of defending myself.” 

“You are,” Connor agreed. “But I’m the older brother, so…” he said with a small half-shrug. Connor sat down, feeling satisfied and grabbed the tablet again. 

Another notification appeared on his HUD. 

NINES

🔓 FAMILY

**Author's Note:**

> I got very lazy near the end not gonna lie...but i hope you enjoy this!!!


End file.
